Mediterranean U-boat Campaign (World War II)

Mediterranean U-boat Campaign
Part of the Battle of the Mediterranean of World War II
U-617 aground near Mellila, Morocco at position 35°23′N 3°16′W / 35.38°N 03.27°W / 35.38; -03.27 after British air attack 12 September 1943
Date 21 September 1941 to May 1944 Location Mediterranean Sea Result Allied Victory
Belligerents
Royal Navy  Royal Australian Navy  United States Navy Other Allied navies	Kriegsmarine  Regia Marina
Strength
	62 U-boats
Casualties and losses
95 merchant ships sunk 24 major warships sunk	62 U-boats lost

The Mediterranean U-boat Campaign lasted approximately from 21 September 1941 to 19 September 1944 during World War II. Malta was an active British base strategically located near supply routes from Europe to North Africa. As a result, Axis supply convoys across the Mediterranean Sea suffered severe losses, which in turn threatened the fighting ability of the Axis armies in North Africa. At the same time the Allies were able successfully to keep their North African armies supplied. The Kriegsmarine initially aimed, unsuccessfully, to isolate Malta but later it concentrated its U-boat operations on disrupting Allied landing operations in southern Europe.

Some 60 German U-boats made the hazardous passage into the Mediterranean Sea in World War II. Only one completed the journey both ways.Karl Dönitz, the Commander-in-Chief, U-boats, Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote (BdU) was always reluctant to send his boats into the Mittelmeer, but he recognised that natural 'choke points' such as the Straits of Gibraltar were more likely to result in shipping being found and attacked than relying on finding it in the vast Atlantic Ocean.

The U-boats were sent to assist the Italians, although many were attacked in the Strait of Gibraltar, of which nine were sunk while attempting passage and 10 more were damaged. The Mediterranean is a clear and calm body of water which made escape more difficult for the U-boats. The Axis failed in their objective.

The Kriegsmarine had acquired some knowledge of the area; Dönitz was an officer aboard UB-68 which had been sunk in the region in World War I.

U-boats had also served in the Spanish Civil War. The Republicans, with twelve submarines, opposed the Nationalists, who had none; so the presence of German U-boats was most welcome. The first two vessels, U-33 and U-34, under the codename Training Exercise Ursula, left Wilhelmshaven on 20 November 1936. Both submarines sailed down the English Channel and slipped into the Mediterranean on the night of 27 November. They were soon in action, U-34 fired a single torpedo at a Republican destroyer in the evening of 1 December. The projectile missed, impacting on rocks. The boat, under Leutnant zur See Harald Grosse, tried again on 5 and 8 December, with an equal lack of success. U-33 fared no better; her commander was frustrated by the absence of target identification or defensive movement of his intended victims. Only one vessel was sunk by the U-boats, the Republican submarine C-3, which was attacked by U-34 on 12 December.

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Wikipedia